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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23022271">a little slice of eternity</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/anissa_qiaolian/pseuds/anissa_qiaolian'>anissa_qiaolian</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>outtakes, rewrites, missing scenes and other aos related works i was too chicken to post originally [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Melinda May needs a Hug, Phil Couslon wants to give her one, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale, Tahiti (Agents of SHIELD), and other stuff too but this is a g rated fic so its offscreen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 12:16:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>673</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23022271</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/anissa_qiaolian/pseuds/anissa_qiaolian</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
      <p>i wrote this at the end of season five. i wanted it to be a cute fluffy fic but lmao, it was kind of hard write that when 1/2 the ship was dying and the other 1/2 was forced to watch #thanksMoJed :((</p>
    </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Phil Coulson/Melinda May, past meldrew</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>outtakes, rewrites, missing scenes and other aos related works i was too chicken to post originally [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654600</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a little slice of eternity</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i wrote this at the end of season five. i wanted it to be a cute fluffy fic but lmao, it was kind of hard write that when 1/2 the ship was dying and the other 1/2 was forced to watch #thanksMoJed :((</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Melinda wasn’t sure how she felt about the beach.</p><p>The last time she had felt sand gripping the soft side of her toes was in Maui with Andrew, right before Lash came and destroyed their lives. And ended his.</p><p>Was she a bad person for moving on like this?</p><p>It had been almost three years since the man that was her ex-husband transformed for the last time into an Inhuman-killing giant. Melinda still isn’t sure whether it was Lash’s destiny to save Quake from Hive’s mind control or Andrew sacrificing his last bit of humanity to save Daisy, the girl who stole both their hearts in record time.</p><p>Her mind chided her for feeling guilty. It had been three years, and they’d spent seven years apart before that. </p><p>If she knew Andrew, and his kind, sympathetic heart, she knew he would not want her to spend the rest of her life in misery over their tragically short love story.</p><p>Especially if the person filling those shoes now was Phil.</p><p> Everyone at SHIELD and beyond knew how seriously Phil Coulson and Melinda May took their jobs as partners. They’ve been watching each other’s backs long before the Battle of New York and the Avengers were even on the public’s minds.  Hell, their friendship alone nearly predates the youngest members of their team.</p><p>But everything was different now.</p><p>Now they were trying to learn how to be there for each other in another way, and Melinda was trying as hard as she could to swallow her bitterness about her partner’s willingness to leave her and their team behind again.</p><p>It wasn’t fair to hold this over Phil’s head, to remind him of the last time she’d been forced to watch a man she loved die helplessly on the sidelines.</p><p>So she didn’t. Instead she gulped down the bile that formed whenever reality threatened to swallow her whole and she aimed to give him the best few weeks of his life on this fake-looking island.</p><p>At least she was prepared this time.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He understood.</p><p>As usual, she didn’t have to say anything for Phil to register the downturn of her small, heart-shaped lips. The resignation in her eyes was visible behind the thick aviator glasses she wore to match with his.</p><p>Sadness seemed to radiate from every inch of her being.</p><p>For the first time he started to doubt himself.</p><p>The world was saved, wasn’t it?</p><p>Daisy had smartly used the serum he stashed inside her gauntlets on herself to defeat Talbot. The world was in one piece. He could live without guilt, if they could find another way.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He’s spent way too much time over the years staring at Melinda May’s face.</p><p> By now he knows every crevice, every quirk, the way her eyes seem to shine with every emotion and none somehow at the same time. The way they sparkle when she is in good mood. Seeing that spark get  extinguished after Bahrain, seemingly forever.</p><p>The way they double in size to appear almost childlike when she can no longer bear to hide her emotions. The way they seemed to constrict and tighten when she was willing the tears not to fall from swollen eyelids.</p><p>He’s been seeing that look a lot, lately. The ‘<em>I’m sad and angry and pissed but Phil and the kids need me to keep it together right now’ </em>face.</p><p>He’s always admired her selflessness. It’s not in the showy, Steve Rogers-esque way he admired from the comics he read as a teen long before he’d ran into the man himself.</p><p>The fact that Melinda constantly moved in silence; that her heroism was so quiet, thankless, helpful, and just downright sweet sometimes was what made her the perfect hero. She wasn’t even trying to be one at all, she was just trying to protect her team. Trying to protect <em>him.</em></p><p>And now she’s here, accepting of his choice to lay down and die, seemingly without a fight. Still protecting his feelings after all of it. He really didn’t deserve her.</p>
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